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Woodchip mill sale

NO wonder that the state opposition politicians and the enviro- fundamentalists are whinging about an enquiry into the Triabunna woodchip mill sale.

It is on the public record that the sale, and subsequent sacrifice, of the Triabunna woodchip mill was a key factor in the Labor-Green state government’s alleged “Forest Peace Deal”.

It was announced in July 2011 by co-buyers Jan Cameron and Graeme Wood that the mill’s long- term future “will be as a tourism destination”.

At the time one of the buyers, Mr Wood, had been under media scrutiny after he gave $1.6 million to the Greens in the previous election campaign.

Sensing trouble, the Forest Industries Association of Tasmania said the purchase of the Triabunna mill had created confusion, and that without its continuation, the “Peace Deal” would have no standing.

Just one month earlier, in June 2011, it was announced that the Triabunna woodchip mill had been bought by Fibre Plus Tasmania, a subsidiary company of the Bridgewater-based transport business Aprin Pty Ltd.

When news of the purchase by Mr Wood and Ms Cameron was broken on ABC radio it was to the amazement of the gazumped buyer, the O’Connor family’s Fibre Plus, because Gunns had now sold the mill to Wood and Cameron for $6 million less than what Fibre Plus had already agreed to pay.

However, the Fibre Plus spokesman did note that there was uncertainty about a clause that Gunns had added into its contract to sell the Triabunna woodchip mill, relating to the “Principles of Agreements” statement that had been negotiated.

To any discerning observer it would appear that Gunns and the Giddings’ Labor-Green government knowingly sacrificed the Triabunna mill in desperation to save the doomed pulp mill and peace deal projects.

If you haven’t thrown out your old newspapers I suggest that you read them again.

– BERT WILLIAMS, Hobart.

This story Administrator ready to work first appeared on Nanjing Night Net.